Page 251
251 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Schmid Schmidt interest was supreme; in this capacity he served in the university 1848-64, when he received the chair of church history which was his first choice. He had, besides, the principal authority in the Protestant Gymnasium, 1849-59 and 1865-69. His strength was also drawn upon for numerous services in other directions to the advantage of the city. Schmidt's literary works appeared now in the German and now in the French language. They fall into four groups, which represent four departments of church history. The first is that which deals with church history at large, in which may be placed Essai historique sur la sociUtk eivile dans le monde romain et sur sa transformation par le ehristianisme (Strasburg, 1853; Eng. transl., The Social Results of Early Christianity, London, 1885), which was crowned by the French Academy; thirty years later he finished his literary labors with a work in this department, his Pr6cis de l'histoire de l'eglise d'occi dent pendant le moyen-dge (1888). The second group is that which has to do with the Church of the Mid dle Ages, and contains a series of monographs de voted to the various sects and to the mystics of the period. Here belong his thesis for the doctorate already mentioned: Meister Eckart (1839); Essai sur J. Gerson (1839); Johannes Tauler von Strass burg (Hamburg, 1841); Der Mystiker Heinrich Suso (1843); Essai sur le mystieisme allemand au XIV. side (Strasburg, 1847); Die Gottesfreunde im 14. Jahrhundert (Jena, 1854); RulmanMerswin, le Jon dateur de la maison de Saint-Jean de Strasbourg (Strasburg, 1856) ; Nicolaus von Basel and die Gottes freunde (1856); Nieolaus von Basel, Leben and aus gewahlte Schriften (1866); and Nicolaus von Basel, Bericht von der Bekehrung Taulers (1875); in these there was steady progress and change in opinion, as the author was not averse to learning from his con temporaries. His chief work in this department was Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares ou Al bigeois (2 vols., Paris, 1849), in which he laid the basis for future expositions. A third group is re lated to the Reformation in Germany and France. Here are to be noted G&ard Roussel, prodicateur de la reine Marguerite de Navarre (Strasburg, 1845); La Vie et les travaux de Jean Sturm (1855) ; and three volumes contributed to the series on the founders and fathers of the Lutheran and Reformed churches -Peter Martyr Vermigli (Elberfeld, 1858); Philipp Mdanchthon (1861); and Wilhelm Farel and Peter Viret (1861). Besides these and other writings, a noteworthy series of articles was contributed to the Theologische Studien and Kritiken. The fourth group dealt with local history, to which the last twenty five years of his life were given. Here may be named Histoire du chapitre de Saint-Thomas de Strasbourg pendant le moyen-dge (Strasburg, 1860); Histoire litMraire de l'Alsace d la fin du XV. et au commence ment du XVl. sikde (2 vols., Paris, 1879; crowned by the French Academy); Michael Schatz genannt Toxites (1888); and Livres et bibliothkques d Stras bourg au moyen dge (1893). Schmidt was engaged all his life, more or less, upon the gathering of other materials which he playfully designated as " hours with the muse," and these in the course of time grew into greater or lesser wholes. Such were his Strass burger Gassen- and Htuser-Namen im Mittelalter
(2d eel., 1888) ; W orterbueh der Strassburger Mundart (1896); and Les Seigneurs, les paysans et la propriN rurale en Alsace au moyen dge (1897), the last two posthumous.
The foregoing by no means exhausts Schmidt's literary productivity, not to mention his numerous reviews and other more or less ephemeral writings. Enough has been said to exhibit his exceedingly great diligence. Commensurate with this was his fulness of knowledge, the thoroughness which he displayed in research, and the reliability which was the result. There was also a strong personal reserve or modesty, and a dislike for the rhetorical. He also exhibited pronounced personal piety, a mild and tolerant personality, and a manly earnestness. His later years found him growing, as he more and more appreciated Lutheranism, in opposition to Rome and in antipathy to Zwinglian spiritism. He outgrew also his early partiality for Romanticism. With him departed the last representative of the early generation of Strasburg theologians who, before the Franco-Prussian War, acted as mediators between German and French theology, whose influence extended beyond the scene of their labors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A sketch of Schmidt's life was furnished by R. Reuss to the Journal d'Alsace, Mar., 1895, and reprinted separately, Strasburg, the same year. The same writer provided a preface drawn from Schmidts remains to the 1Vorterbuch, ut sup., and further material was provided by Pfister prefatorially in Les Sedgneurs, pp. v.-xxxv.
SCHMIDT, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS: Lutheran; b. at Leutenberg (68 m. s.w. of Leipsic), Germany, Jan. 3, 1837. He was brought as a child to the United States, and received his education at Concordia College, St. Louis (B.A., 1857); entered the Lutheran ministry as pastor of the German Congregation, Eden, N. Y., where he served, 18571859; was pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Baltimore, 1859-61; professor in the Luther College, Decoran, Ia., 1861-72; professor of theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1872-76; at Madison, Wis., 1876-86, at Northfield, Minn., 18861890, and since 1890 at the Seminary of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church, Minneapolis; he also edited The Lutheran Watchman, 1865-66, Altes and News, 1880-85, and Lutherske Vidnesbyrd, 1882-88.
SCHMIDT, HERMANN CHRISTOPH: German Lutheran; b. at Frickenhofen (a village near Gaildorf, 31 m. n.e. of Stuttgart) Feb. 23, 1832; d. at Breslau Nov. 19, 1893. He was educated at Tubingen (1850-54), where, after having been vicar at Korb and private tutor at Berlin and Danzig, he was lecturer in 1858-61. He was then city vicar of Stuttgart until 1863, acting as general supply to the clergy, and in the latter year was called in a similar capacity to Calw, where he remained until 1869, sturdily opposing the local Pietism with the supranaturalism which characterized his theological position throughout his life, but unable to influence the people generally. From 1869 to 1881 he was attached to the Leonhardskirche at Breslau. Here he also took an active part in practical religious life, especially in the Innere Mission (q.v.), being president of the South German conference after 1869 and publishing at Hamburg in 1879 his In-